Martin Cupit
Before I embarked on the two UTas Convict study units, I
knew I had one convict ancestor, namely Martin Cupit. My maternal grandmother
was a Cupit before she married, and Martin was her grandfather, only a mere
four generations back from me.
Martin arrived in Van
Diemen’s Land in 1852, the tail end of criminal transportation to VDL. The
abolition of slavery by the Wigg political party in England was to increasingly influence the
abolition of transportation as awareness grew of a need to overhaul punishment
and conditions for these convicts. Their crimes certainly didn’t begin to match
their convictions. Martin and a group of his friends were caught poaching game and
were all transported aboard the “Equestrian”. Martin was 5’ 11 ¾” tall, dark
complexion, black hair. His height indicates he would have probably had a
childhood free from malnourishment. Martin had his right arm tattooed with a
mermaid and his left with a bird and heart. He left behind a wife and daughter
in Derbyshire.
At least 37% of males and 17% of women were inked by their arrival to the colony with secret codes and images laden with meaning. The mermaid symbolised peril at sea, beauty and fear. The bird and heart no doubt symbolised love lost, flown away.
Martin’s record isn’t particularly long winded. He was
assigned to the Douglas River Coal Company, was fined for being drunk in Feb
1853, gained his Ticket of Leave in December 1853 and was again fined on Dec 26th,
1854 for being drunk and disturbing the peace.[i]
When he married Sarah Murphy in Franklin in 1862, his
marriage certificate stated he was a laborer. How Martin ended up in Franklin,
I don’t know. Franklin had plenty of convicts serving and working there, many
of whom stayed on after their freedom was granted, bought or leased land and
often did quite well for themselves. Martin must have made the choice to move
there. He probably labored for the many
sawyers and timber workers in the Huon Valley. It was appealing work for many
ex-convicts, hard, physical work they were familiar with, but with freedom from
chains, gangs and masters. Records exist of women working hard with their
partners carrying shingles, posts and palings on their shoulders to the beach.[ii]
It was probably this kind of work that the Coroner’s verdict stated that killed
poor Sarah in 1876. (previous blog)
The bare facts I have of Martin’s life after his marriage
are that he and Sarah had two children William born in 1867, and Martina born
in 1870 and they lived in a house owned by E.A. Walpole, Esq., P.M.
One snippet existing on Martin is a rather gruesome tale
that was reported in Hobart’s Mercury newspaper. It involved Martin as a
witness. In September 1866, a James Esson was accidentally drowned at Glaziers
Bay. The body was placed in the police boat shed, and as was the norm, local
doctor William Lee Dawson was summoned to examine the body as a medical
witness. William Lee Dawson was a respected member of the Franklin community. He
was a highly qualified Medical Practitioner who treated all the medical needs
and emergencies including the dreadful injuries and deaths which ensued from
the timber felling industry. He was appointed Deputy Registrar of Births, Deaths
and Marriages for Franklin in 1856. He conducted inquests and his normal duties
included examining victims of crime, both dead and alive. He was appointed
Surgeon of the Huon Rifle Company, Southern Tas Volunteers and was nominated as
a candidate to serve as a Member of the House of Assembly in 1861.[iii]
On the 15th of October 1858, Dr Dawson and E.A. Walpole signed off on the deaths of Peter McEwan age 45, James Watson age 19, Annie Montgomery age 12, John McEwan age 5 and William Willgrave age 50, all killed by a fallen tree.
Before E.A. Walpole, Esq., P.M., at the Police Office in
Franklin the story was told. On the 9th of August, local farmer
William Lovell and local undertaker Henry Newell both watched on in the boat shed
as Dawson cut the head off the body and screwed the lid of the coffin down. The
head was then taken away by a man known as “One-eye’d Jack”. As the plot
thickens in what’s sounding quite like a Dickensian tale, John Whitemore was
then employed to carry the man’s head (then in a bag) to Langford’s public
house and show it to “Ratty” meaning Martin Cupit and also to Mr. Langford.
John did as instructed and held the head up for the men to see. Two other
witnesses were at the pub when Dawson came in, took the head and placed it in a
waterhole near his home, then subsequently buried it. Martin and Mr. Langford
collaborated the testimony adding that the head was decomposed and very
offensive. The matter was then reported to the chief district constable
The next day Dr Dawson’s servant Henry Douglas, testified
that Dawson opened the coffin and replaced the head back with the headless
corpse. Dawson was fully committed for trial on this evidence. [iv]
image: libraries tas
I don’t quite know what to make of this story. I’d love to
know why this occurred and the backstory. How much of an insight does it give
into Martin, or Ratty as he was known?
Was it a dare, a drunken promise or a threat? And if so, who
was threatening or daring who? Why would Dawson risk his career and social
standing? I reckon I’d be pretty safe in surmising that a fair bit of alcohol
consumption could have been involved throughout the unfolding of the whole ordeal
though. Without delving deeper into criminal records, I can’t say what happened
to Dawson, except he does not appear in local newspapers again until five years
later on the 28th June 1871 in the death notices at age 53. He died
and was buried in Franklin.[v]
His obituary in The Mercury on 30th June 1871 says of him
that he was a benevolent, but rather eccentric practitioner (who) had
been the favourite medical advisor to all persons in the Franklin
district....His nature was of the true character of charity - universal, and
consequently embracing all objects and persons, poor as well as rich. His skill
as a surgeon and operator was not surpassed in this colony. He had his failings
like other men, but they were unlike those of most colonists "written upon
his sleeve" and exposed to public criticism. His virtues preponderated
over what are called failings, and the attentions paid to his wearying sick bed
show that he was beloved by those who laughed at his eccentricities, while they
believed in his inestimable value as a citizen.
google search William Lee Dawson: Sharon: Tree of Me genealogy blog
His Obituary doesn’t gloss over the fact that William Lee Dawson
had very public eccentricities and failings, with this event probably being one
of them. He sounds like a fascinating man and one that when I get a Time Machine,
I’d love to pop back and have dinner with in his Franklin house. Maybe he was an 'on the spectrum' intelligent eccentric who din't quite know social boundaries, Franklin's Doc Martin? Researching Dawson
and these colourful Franklin characters just makes me wish I could have been a
fly on the wall.
Martin’s life ends
sadly and prematurely too. After losing Sarah on the 24th December 1876, I would hazard a guess
that Martin’s probable alcohol dependence saw him through the next two years of
his life until he died of dropsy and liver disease the day before Martina’s 8th
birthday in November 1878, leaving the two children orphaned.
What became of William and Martina requires further research
and a future blog post.
[i]
Librariestas name Search convict record
[ii]North of Dover & Point Esperance :
Police Point to Cairns Bay : how earliest settlers changed their lives / by
Dorothy Baker. Page 4
[iii] http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8797120; http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8798879; ttp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202389235
[iv] http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8841810
[v] http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8866482
